Specifications & Descriptions

Allowed Traffic

To ensure smooth operation of the AMS-IX infrastructure we impose a set of restrictions on what kind of traffic is allowed on the peering fabric. This page gives a summary of those restrictions

Port Security

The greatest danger to any Ethernet network consists of loops. Unless countermeasures are taken, a loop will instantly bring down any network. Broadcasts are looped back to the network, creating duplicates and loading the CPUs of all connected equipment, or in the worst case creating self-sustaining broadcast storms as broadcasts are fed back on another port and sent out on the first port again.

Quarantine VLAN

AMS-IX has implemented a feature called “Quarantine VLAN” whereby all new ports are placed in their own separate VLAN, together with a monitor port.

Configuration Guide

This article gives some pointers towards setting up your device when connecting to the AMS-IX. AMS-IX rules restrict the type of traffic and number of source MAC addresses that any network is allowed to send to the exchange. The AMS-IX platform is build around photonic cross connects, Layer 1 switches, which introduce very short link flaps for the customers with 10GE connections when moving customer connections between Ethernet switches.

Route-servers

Normally, you need to maintain separate BGP sessions to each of your peers' routers. With a route server you can replace all or a subset of these sessions with one session towards each route server. The goal of the route server project is to facilitate the implementation of peering arrangements, and to lower the barrier of entry for new participants on the peering platform.